not a goulash
June 5, 2008 9:28 AM Subscribe
Does this literary form exist?
I've recently completed a novel and am trying to decide how to present it in queries. My novel is written as a series of short stories. Each story has been carefully plotted to both stand on its own and to continue the overall narrative of the novel.
While I recognize the existence of several similar formats, short story collections by an author around a specific theme or concept, certainly short story collections involving the same characters, has there been a novel/collection of stories that have been planned as a hybrid? Each story/chapter is a consequence of the previous one. Each has its own narrative arc.
Especially in sci-fi, the term "fix-up" is used. Many of these are classics (More Than Human by Sturgeon, I, Robot by Asimov) but they are retrofitted, frankly, a way of recycling short stories as a novel. Or, sometimes they toss in a tattooed man as a means of unifying an anthology.
When I read of somewhat similar ventures they are described as a series of short stories or episodes loosely constructed as a novel. Examples (I've not read these, only encountered descriptions):
Hearts in Atlantis (Stephen King)
Go Down, Moses (William Faulkner)
Is there an example of an episodic novel where each chapter is clearly the consequence of its predecessor? Where the main character experiences the crisis and change that supposedly defines a novel? My genre is mystery/suspense.
I've recently completed a novel and am trying to decide how to present it in queries. My novel is written as a series of short stories. Each story has been carefully plotted to both stand on its own and to continue the overall narrative of the novel.
While I recognize the existence of several similar formats, short story collections by an author around a specific theme or concept, certainly short story collections involving the same characters, has there been a novel/collection of stories that have been planned as a hybrid? Each story/chapter is a consequence of the previous one. Each has its own narrative arc.
Especially in sci-fi, the term "fix-up" is used. Many of these are classics (More Than Human by Sturgeon, I, Robot by Asimov) but they are retrofitted, frankly, a way of recycling short stories as a novel. Or, sometimes they toss in a tattooed man as a means of unifying an anthology.
When I read of somewhat similar ventures they are described as a series of short stories or episodes loosely constructed as a novel. Examples (I've not read these, only encountered descriptions):
Hearts in Atlantis (Stephen King)
Go Down, Moses (William Faulkner)
Is there an example of an episodic novel where each chapter is clearly the consequence of its predecessor? Where the main character experiences the crisis and change that supposedly defines a novel? My genre is mystery/suspense.
Sorry, just to clarify: would any of these episodic chapters stand up on their own as a complete and satisfying short story? Obviously you're going to miss the overarching plot and character development, but barring that, how happy would you be for someone to experience just one of them?
posted by Magnakai at 9:54 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by Magnakai at 9:54 AM on June 5, 2008
Apologies, that question is an example of Moronfilter at its finest.
The fourth sentence in the question: Each story has been carefully plotted to both stand on its own and to continue the overall narrative of the novel.
posted by Magnakai at 9:56 AM on June 5, 2008
The fourth sentence in the question: Each story has been carefully plotted to both stand on its own and to continue the overall narrative of the novel.
posted by Magnakai at 9:56 AM on June 5, 2008
<fanboy>
Hmm. It's not quite the same, but Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus is a set of short stories which "work" completely only when you're reading the whole set, but which can be (and have been) treated as seperate short stories.
</fanboy>
This is also a characteristic of older fiction. Fiction which is published in serial form is often designed to be readable from any point—check out some 19th Century lit or early science fiction and you may be surprised.
posted by sonic meat machine at 10:13 AM on June 5, 2008
Hmm. It's not quite the same, but Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus is a set of short stories which "work" completely only when you're reading the whole set, but which can be (and have been) treated as seperate short stories.
</fanboy>
This is also a characteristic of older fiction. Fiction which is published in serial form is often designed to be readable from any point—check out some 19th Century lit or early science fiction and you may be surprised.
posted by sonic meat machine at 10:13 AM on June 5, 2008
Six Easy Pieces by Walter Mosley. A collection of Easy Rawlins short stories that can be read individually or as a novel of Easy discovering a disturbing secret about his dead friend Mouse.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:15 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by infinitewindow at 10:15 AM on June 5, 2008
Actually the concept is interesting in this world, but back in Dickens it was the way to go. Most of Dickens was written in this manner, where each chapter had to stand on its own
posted by ljrsphb at 10:23 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by ljrsphb at 10:23 AM on June 5, 2008
Best answer: I think I know what you mean.
Cures for Heartbreak is a young adult novel that has chapters that together tell one story, in chronological order, with a natural flow of events from beginning to end. Not stories on a theme (like Adverbs by Daniel Handler), or stories about people who are connected somehow (like Ernie's Ark by Monica Wood), or an unconventional narrative (Cloud Atlas). But the chapters are self-contained, nonetheless. It wasn't until after I'd read it that I realized that almost every chapter had been previously published on its own in magazines, or read on its own on the radio, or what have you.
But I'd say there's a fine line between what you're talking about and a short story collection about the same character that goes in chronological order and where there's no "reset button" at the beginning of each story.
I think in queries your best bet is to just describe it as a novel in short stories with a brief plot description. You can use your description to hint at how it's different from other novels in short stories.
If you ask me, chapters should be more like short stories anyway.
posted by lampoil at 10:33 AM on June 5, 2008
Cures for Heartbreak is a young adult novel that has chapters that together tell one story, in chronological order, with a natural flow of events from beginning to end. Not stories on a theme (like Adverbs by Daniel Handler), or stories about people who are connected somehow (like Ernie's Ark by Monica Wood), or an unconventional narrative (Cloud Atlas). But the chapters are self-contained, nonetheless. It wasn't until after I'd read it that I realized that almost every chapter had been previously published on its own in magazines, or read on its own on the radio, or what have you.
But I'd say there's a fine line between what you're talking about and a short story collection about the same character that goes in chronological order and where there's no "reset button" at the beginning of each story.
I think in queries your best bet is to just describe it as a novel in short stories with a brief plot description. You can use your description to hint at how it's different from other novels in short stories.
If you ask me, chapters should be more like short stories anyway.
posted by lampoil at 10:33 AM on June 5, 2008
Dickens's Pickwick Papers comes close. There's relative little character development. Instead, it's a series of blackout skits involving the continuing cast of characters.
posted by KRS at 10:34 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by KRS at 10:34 AM on June 5, 2008
This is fairly common on television. I can think of several series that are like this, most notably "Upstairs, Downstairs." There are a few exceptions: some episodes are "throwaways" that don't add anything to the overall arc. And a few episodes end with major cliffhangers, making them unsatisfying on their own. But most do stand on their own while also moving the overall story forward.
"Deadwood" is somewhat like this, thought not as much as "U,D."
posted by grumblebee at 10:47 AM on June 5, 2008
"Deadwood" is somewhat like this, thought not as much as "U,D."
posted by grumblebee at 10:47 AM on June 5, 2008
Response by poster: Thanks for the input. I'll have to research the individual examples. I'm describing it as "a novel in mysteries." While each chapter could be published on its own (I'd probably strike out several sentences that are there as callbacks or foreshadowing), I've purposefully tried to remove the feeling of "was this published as a story elsewhere?"
In my mind, it is wholly a novel. The individual stories are there as a form of structure, hopefully a pleasing one. Being in the mystery genre, each has a mystery solved (or in a couple of cases, the climax involves the solution falling apart). There is the overarching mystery to hold it together. My best examples would be from television. Carnivale came close. Veronica Mars when the individual episodes dealt with the larger mystery. Ditto with Battlestar Galactica. The "failing" of a television season is that its writing is farmed out and it is difficult to maintain a slavish attention to the overall story - even when there is an overall story. The need to endlessly play out the overall story (until sudden cancellation) also hurts maintaining the cohesiveness of the television series. In fact, one of the reasons I pursued this structure is it seemed to be a modern structure by which people experience story, one that honed its focus in recent years, the way that ambling stories like The Fugitive (60s, each a short story while following an overall dilemma) have given way to the HBO form.
Are there suggestions how I should market it (to publishers/agents)?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:49 AM on June 5, 2008
In my mind, it is wholly a novel. The individual stories are there as a form of structure, hopefully a pleasing one. Being in the mystery genre, each has a mystery solved (or in a couple of cases, the climax involves the solution falling apart). There is the overarching mystery to hold it together. My best examples would be from television. Carnivale came close. Veronica Mars when the individual episodes dealt with the larger mystery. Ditto with Battlestar Galactica. The "failing" of a television season is that its writing is farmed out and it is difficult to maintain a slavish attention to the overall story - even when there is an overall story. The need to endlessly play out the overall story (until sudden cancellation) also hurts maintaining the cohesiveness of the television series. In fact, one of the reasons I pursued this structure is it seemed to be a modern structure by which people experience story, one that honed its focus in recent years, the way that ambling stories like The Fugitive (60s, each a short story while following an overall dilemma) have given way to the HBO form.
Are there suggestions how I should market it (to publishers/agents)?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:49 AM on June 5, 2008
It's not really a novel, but there's an argument to make that Chaucer's Cantebury Tales fits the mold. Depending on how long the "short" stories could be, there is also Asimov's Foundation series, in which each "novel" is about 2-4 different, more-or-less independent stories.
I'm not sure if there is a literary term that catches every aspect of the idea, even though it's hardly new. There are "serial" novels that are intended to be absorbed one chapter at a time, but there is no requirement that each chapter be enjoyable by itself. It's similar to television series, where there is no name that distinguishes between truly episodic series where each episode can be enjoyed independent of the rest (think the original Star Trek) and series with very heavy story arcs that are almost impossible to enjoy without having seen previous episodes (think most soap operas). This is probably because the distribution of television series is pretty even across the episode-independence spectrum (progressing from The Twilight Zone, through Quantum Leap, The Simpsons, Friends, Doctor Who, Babylon 5, 24, etc.) Since they don't clump* around a few different levels in the way that story lengths clump around novel-size and short-story-size, there's little incentive to give names to the different areas.
Should no term turn up, I suggest "independently episodic novel".
*To adopt a term from evolution (that I think should be more well-known), there's no speciation.
posted by ErWenn at 10:49 AM on June 5, 2008
I'm not sure if there is a literary term that catches every aspect of the idea, even though it's hardly new. There are "serial" novels that are intended to be absorbed one chapter at a time, but there is no requirement that each chapter be enjoyable by itself. It's similar to television series, where there is no name that distinguishes between truly episodic series where each episode can be enjoyed independent of the rest (think the original Star Trek) and series with very heavy story arcs that are almost impossible to enjoy without having seen previous episodes (think most soap operas). This is probably because the distribution of television series is pretty even across the episode-independence spectrum (progressing from The Twilight Zone, through Quantum Leap, The Simpsons, Friends, Doctor Who, Babylon 5, 24, etc.) Since they don't clump
Should no term turn up, I suggest "independently episodic novel".
*To adopt a term from evolution (that I think should be more well-known), there's no speciation.
posted by ErWenn at 10:49 AM on June 5, 2008
Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry should fit. I've heard episodic be used to describe it.
posted by devilsbrigade at 11:06 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by devilsbrigade at 11:06 AM on June 5, 2008
Response by poster: I had considered the way older novels were released in episodic form or serialized. Maybe I'd have to go back and read them with fresh eyes, but it seems to me, at minimum, they were "as we last left our hero. . ."
Thanks again for the feedback. This is more clear in my mind. It maybe a new breed, but no speciation has occured.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:23 AM on June 5, 2008
Thanks again for the feedback. This is more clear in my mind. It maybe a new breed, but no speciation has occured.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:23 AM on June 5, 2008
Neil Gaiman's upcoming "The Graveyard Book" is written like that (though it is a fantasy). As far as I know, there is no specific term for "novel composed of stand alone short stories that nonetheless make a coherent overall plot.
posted by Caduceus at 11:23 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by Caduceus at 11:23 AM on June 5, 2008
Response by poster: Aargh! I just came up with a great title for this thread: Neither Goulash Nor Archipelago.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:28 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:28 AM on June 5, 2008
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing is exactly like this. In one of the reviews, it's called a "collection of seven tightly interlinked stories". All but one feature the same protagonist, but often with years between each episode.
posted by changeling at 11:35 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by changeling at 11:35 AM on June 5, 2008
Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card is a good example of this.
posted by adamdschneider at 11:52 AM on June 5, 2008
posted by adamdschneider at 11:52 AM on June 5, 2008
This might sound weird, but the Encyclopedia Brown series was often written like this. Individual mysteries that were solved in each chapter, but all worked over, say, the course of a summer or something. That's how I remember them, at least.
posted by indiebass at 12:00 PM on June 5, 2008
posted by indiebass at 12:00 PM on June 5, 2008
Best answer: I've always heard this type of work referred to as a story cycle.
posted by jjg at 12:04 PM on June 5, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by jjg at 12:04 PM on June 5, 2008 [1 favorite]
For the purpose of getting your work represented and sold, I would strongly advise you to call it a novel and call the stories chapters. Disclaimer: My knowledge is from the literary fiction market; I'm not sure mystery/suspense is the same. Disclaimer 2: the answer might be different if some of your stories/chapters have already been published in wide-circulation publications.
posted by escabeche at 1:22 PM on June 5, 2008
posted by escabeche at 1:22 PM on June 5, 2008
Dasheill Hammett's stories were frequently serialized first, and there's no "When we last left our hero." They were repackaged as novels, but (at least according to the edition I've out from the library) there's been no changes to the text, only the settings.
And another literary example would be Sherman Alexi's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
posted by klangklangston at 1:53 PM on June 5, 2008
And another literary example would be Sherman Alexi's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
posted by klangklangston at 1:53 PM on June 5, 2008
Another example would be Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, which has such a strongly biographical tone that people mistake it for a genuine memoir of short stories although it clearly identifies itself as fiction and a novel. The stories (primarily of the Vietnam war but also on the fictional O'Brien main character's life before, leading up to and after the war) are not chronological but their order is far from random, they trace a clear narrative path, foreshadow later developments, later stories resolve or explain issues left from prior stories, there is narrative climax and resolution in the book, but the stories pretty much would all work as stand-alone pieces as well.
Some other not quite as clear cut examples that occur to me are Asimov's The Gods Themselves (more of a clear unitary narrative but the parts are fairly independent stories) and Le Guin's Always Coming Home and Four Ways to Forgiveness.
I think O'Brien's decision to simply call his book "a novel" was a sound one. Make up a snappy "elevator synopsis" way to describe the unique structure.
posted by nanojath at 2:31 PM on June 5, 2008
Some other not quite as clear cut examples that occur to me are Asimov's The Gods Themselves (more of a clear unitary narrative but the parts are fairly independent stories) and Le Guin's Always Coming Home and Four Ways to Forgiveness.
I think O'Brien's decision to simply call his book "a novel" was a sound one. Make up a snappy "elevator synopsis" way to describe the unique structure.
posted by nanojath at 2:31 PM on June 5, 2008
You've written a book of linked short stories. This is common, though publishers may want to lean toward calling your book a novel purely for marketing reasons. Resist.
posted by roombythelake at 3:57 PM on June 5, 2008
posted by roombythelake at 3:57 PM on June 5, 2008
Look into If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. It's about a Reader who is attempting to read one book, but keeps finding odd chapters from other books instead. Each one of those chapters is included. I'm not sure if it's exactly what you want because, actually, I didn't get all the way through it, but it's something to look at.
posted by amethysts at 4:01 PM on June 5, 2008
posted by amethysts at 4:01 PM on June 5, 2008
Susan Minot's Monkeys. Tama Janowitz's Slaves of New York, sort of.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:14 PM on June 5, 2008
posted by IndigoJones at 5:14 PM on June 5, 2008
Response by poster: I would say it is a novel. It's bigger picture is a novel, the manner in which it is assembled is in short stories. From the looks of the suggestions here, it may be unique. The mystery story is a form all its own, and cumulative mysteries in the form I've written don't exist. The example of Maltese Falcon (or any other episodic mystery I can think of) really isn't a series of stories. It's chapters.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:47 PM on June 5, 2008
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:47 PM on June 5, 2008
From the looks of the suggestions here, it may be unique.
I would seriously check out The Things They Carried as I suggested above, but in any event I've certainly never heard of anything like it in the mystery genre and I've never met another book quite like O'Brien's Vietnam opus. I hope you find a publisher and put up a project when you do, it sounds really interesting.
posted by nanojath at 11:23 AM on June 6, 2008
I would seriously check out The Things They Carried as I suggested above, but in any event I've certainly never heard of anything like it in the mystery genre and I've never met another book quite like O'Brien's Vietnam opus. I hope you find a publisher and put up a project when you do, it sounds really interesting.
posted by nanojath at 11:23 AM on June 6, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:32 AM on June 5, 2008